The Best Rappers Of 2000 And 2013, Eminem And Kendrick Lamar, Teamed Up To Play A ‘Love Game’

The old and the new come together on “Love Game,” the latest from The Marshall Mathers LP 2, featuring 2000’s greatest rapper, Eminem, swapping stories about exes with 2013’s greatest rapper, Kendrick Lamar. With a sample courtesy of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, the track’s far goofier sounding than anything we’ve heard from the record so far, even with the line, “I want you bad as the head shattered on George Zimmerman.”

Also, there’s a Wee-Bey from The Wire reference, because guys from Detroit can sympathize with Baltimore.

Christ, is that where rap lyrics are at these days? Even in my younger days when I was a huge rap fan, I never legitimately thought that even the best rappers were actually brilliant lyricists but…this…wow. I mean, for fuck sake rap bros, at least put some fucking effort in to it.

No, it’s not where rap lyrics are at these days. Eminem is a has-been who is making his money making pop records now a days, not realizing the pure corniness that his rhymes come off as.

That’s why shit like this angers me. Eminem hasn’t made anything good in years, Lil Wayne hasn’t made anything good in years, Rick Ross hasn’t made anything good period. Yet these are the popular rappers, these are the rappers everyone that isn’t into hip-hop and is on the outside looking in at the genre see and ask themselves “Is this where rap is these days?”, when hip-hop is going through a period at the moment where we are seeing the rise of some very talented and skilled artists, including lyricists. It’s just you have to do some digging to find them, they won’t always pop up on the front page of Uproxx (although they have promoted Killer Mike, Danny Brown and Chance the Rapper so every now and then they do), much less anywhere else hip-hop isn’t a central focus of the content.